Memory leak or memory growth describes a scenario where the memory usage of a particular software application operating on a computer system gradually increases over time. Memory leak can apply to any operating system that uses a processor and memory to execute a process, such as a stand alone computer, computer network, cellular phone, laptop, mobile browser etc. The impact of unchecked memory growth includes degraded performance, depletion of memory resources, and eventually system failures.
Memory leak is most often analyzed during software development but may be a problem in marketed software applications. A problem with existing methods and applications for analyzing memory leak is that they can be very resource intensive and slow when running. They can also impact on the processes being analyzed making it difficult to ascertain the true extent of the memory leak problem.
What is required is a system, method and computer readable medium that can monitor memory growth in an efficient manner without being invasive on the software being analyzed.